Machine Readable Travel Documents - ICAO

IV-18 Machine Readable Travel Documents
position 28 and is calculated from the date of expiry in positions 22 – 27; and the composite check digit in
position 36 is calculated from the characters in positions 1 – 10, 14 – 20 and 22 – 35. If the document number
has more than 9 characters, the 9 principal characters shall be shown in the MRZ in character positions 1 to
9. They shall be followed by a filler character instead of a check digit to indicate a truncated number. The
remaining characters of the document number shall be shown at the beginning of the field reserved for optional
data elements (character positions 25 to 35 of the lower machine readable line) followed by a check digit and
a filler character.
Machine reading requirements and the effective reading zone
16. Effective reading zone. A fixed-dimensional reading area (effective reading zone or ERZ of
17.0 mm × 118.0 mm (0.67 in × 4.65 in)), sized to accommodate the largest MRTD, is defined to allow use of
a single machine reader for all sizes of MRTDs. The location of the ERZ is as defined in Appendix 4 to this
section. The provision of the ERZ is not intended to allow additional tolerance for the printing positions defined
in the appendices to the section(s) specific to the preparation of the different types of MRTDs. The ERZ is
intended to allow for variances due to the manual placement of machine readable visas (MRVs) and the
fanning effect of the pages that takes place when reading an interior page of an MRP. It also allows for the
reading of MRtds with either two or three lines of machine readable data.
16.1 To combat the threat to travel document security posed by, for example, photocopiers, security
features are permitted in the MRZ, and any such security feature shall not interfere with accurate reading of the
OCR characters at the B900 range, as defined in ISO 1831. While OCR characters must be visible, as specified
in 9.2.1, to ensure that all MRTDs, including those with security features in the MRZ, can be successfully read,
the OCR characters in the MRZ shall be machine readable only in the near infrared portion of the spectrum (i.e.
the B900 band defined in ISO 1831).
Characteristics of the machine readable zone
17. Except as otherwise specified herein, the MRtd shall conform with ISO 1831 concerning the
following matters:
— Optical properties of the substrate to be used;
— Optical and dimensional properties of the image patterns forming OCR characters;
— Basic requirements related to the position of OCR characters on the substrate.
17.1 Machine readable data shall be arranged from left to right in fixed-length fields in three lines (upper,
middle and lower) for the td1 or two lines (upper and lower) for the td2. The data is presented in the order
specified in the data structure tables and located on the document as shown in Section V for the td1 and
Section VI for the td2. Data shall be entered in each field, beginning with the left-hand character position.
17.2 Where the entered data do not occupy all the character positions specified for the relevant field, the
symbol < shall be used to fill the unoccupied positions.
Quality specifications of the machine readable zone
18. In general, the print quality shall conform to ISO 1831 Range X, except as otherwise provided herein.
All quality specifications set forth hereunder shall apply to the MRtd after final preparation, except where
otherwise noted, and conform to the requirements of Section IV.